Working in pain clinics

[Seahorse]

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Anyone have any information on physicians working in pain clinics? What is it like? I have had an offer to work in one, but it's a cash only practice and that makes me wonder if this is common and/or good?

 

[gutonc]

Cash only pain clinic = Pill Mill. I'm sure that you won't have any BC Pain Management docs as your colleagues there.

 

[smq123]

I have had an offer to work in one, but it's a cash only practice and that makes me wonder if this is common and/or good?

Common? I don't know.

Good? Definitely not.

Think about it. A PAIN clinic, which deals with the most difficult and demanding patients, and probably hands out a ton of controlled substances every week, is trying to hire a non-board certified physician who never finished a residency.

You'll basically be a pill dispensing machine. You'll never be able to do any of the other stuff that Pain Medicine guys do, like injections, ESIs, etc., because you're not board certified in Pain Medicine. So what's your only possible use? To sign a prescription pad and stamp your DEA# on it.

Bad idea.

 

[peppy]

Back in med school, I remember our class had to attend a talk by a doc who worked at one of these places - until they were busted by the cops (I don't know for sure but I'm guessing that having to give talks to med students about the dangers of being an anesthesiologist with a substance abuse problem who wound up working at a pill mill may have been a court-mandated thing).
Why did you end up leaving your former residency program? Is there any chance you can get back into a residency?

 

[dragonfly99]

I think that you should steer clear. It's easy for us (who have jobs) to say that. It sounds like maybe you are out of residency with no job? Maybe you can find an academic hospital that needs people for moonlighting...something like doing easy hospital admissions. You probably cannot get hired by a VA or federal facilities if haven't finished residency.
I did get an email a while back from a company that does wound care and it said they would consider people who didn't finish residency. It was a spam type email that I got @work (at my fellowship). It said they do wound care in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, etc. It sounded legitimate. Doing something like that would probably be better, since it would not have the potential of getting you into legal trouble. That, or do some sort of lab tech/research job with the hope of getting back into a residency.

 

[HondoCrouch]

If you have no other options in the field of medicine it's probably the best way for someone who didnt finish residency to get some return on their investment in medical school. Just make sure you do everything by the book and dont get into anything shady because medical boards love to shut those things down and pull licenses.

 

[docB]

Just make sure you do everything by the book and dont get into anything shady because medical boards love to shut those things down and pull licenses.

Since those places are by definition shady and they never really have a book this is self contradictory.

 

[Seahorse]

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely steer clear of these clinics then. Someone recently said that I could make some extra cash by coming in and giving suboxone to some of his patients after doing some CME credits. The money would come in handy so that I could apply to residency programs, but if it would land me in trouble, I don't want to do it.

Thus, I am looking at IHS jobs in rural areas for 3-6 months. These appear to be good, give experience and help me get into residency perhaps. I don't know about safety, but perhaps I will have to risk it. I did not get into a primary care residency last year, and so I hope that I get a job that I can do, ,learn, and feel good about myself, and pray that I will get into a residency anywhere! Does anyone know how I can engineer my life so that I get into one? Like any sites that will help me do better personal statements, CVs, help research which programs have funding for me or will consider me? Thanks in advance and thank you for your good will!

 

[Paddington]

At Anesthesia Pain Clinics in university settings that have a host of goverment regulators coming through, it really doesn't take much more for a young, able bodied, heathy, and unemployed man with no objective pain findings, to get a script for 90 tabs of Vicodin other than "pain, pain! 9 out of 10!". He comes back in 2 weeks, and says "Still 9/10!" and can walk out with Oxycontin.

At the pill mills operated by the FP's on the outside where you plunk down $100 cash, it takes even less than that.